


The Wave

by AnneKatherine



Category: The 100 (TV), The 100 Series - Kass Morgan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Politics, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, American Politics, Angst, Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Minor Clarke Griffin/Lexa, Modern Era, Mutant Powers, Mutants, Not Beta Read, Politics, Rebellion, Revolution, Slow Burn, Superpowers, Teenage Rebellion, We Die Like Men, don't read into the science of it too hard, idk i just feel revolutiony, it's like mutants but not quite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24695737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnneKatherine/pseuds/AnneKatherine
Summary: Clarke woke up surrounded by flames. She didn't remember how she got there, all she knew is that her hands hurt, and her house was apparently on fire.She vaguely recalled a wave of air coming at her house, but she couldn't dwell on that too long, as a mysterious figure appeared at the end of her hallway, and started walking towards her, unbothered by the fire raging around them[or the 100 +friends get superpowers in a mysterious wave of radiation and have to survive in a world that hates them. But what else is new?]
Relationships: Abby Griffin/Jake Griffin, Abby Griffin/Thelonious Jaha, Bellamy Blake & Clarke Griffin, Bellamy Blake & Octavia Blake, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Clarke Griffin & Lexa, Clarke Griffin & Wells Jaha, Clarke Griffin/Lexa, Emori/John Murphy (The 100), Finn Collins/Clarke Griffin, Finn Collins/Raven Reyes, Monty Green & Jasper Jordan
Comments: 46
Kudos: 83





	1. The Origin of Clarke Griffin

**Author's Note:**

> I love mutants, and I love the 100. This is my monster, call me Dr. Frankenstein.

All Clarke can feel and see around her are flames. Her hands and head hurt, the ladder she’d been knocked off of laid on the ground next to her now, already being engulfed. She tried to slide away from the ever-growing fire, only to feel the heat of another one behind her. 

She whirled her head back and forth across the narrow hallway, looking for a door, or an opening, or a person. Where was everyone anyways? She couldn’t remember where her parents were.

She couldn’t help but wonder if they were upstairs in their bed, sleeping. Unaware of the burning first floor. 

She tried to stand up but fell as her palms hit the floor. They were red and burning. They must’ve been burned as she fell. She didn’t remember the fall or the fire for that matter, but she could use her hands at all.

Just as she slid further into the house to hide from the flames, she heard a crash from across the hall, a dark figure stood at the end of the corridor, seemingly unbothered by the fire. And he was looking right at her.

The fire and smoke obscured her view of his face, and she tried to shield her eyes to get a better look, when he took a step towards her, right into the heart of the fire.

_[17 hours earlier] ___

____

Clarke stares out the window, and presses her fingers onto the tiny sill below her, before sighing deeply.

____

“Throwing a tantrum isn’t going to change my mind, Clarke.” Her mom says from the kitchen, not looking up, she scowls deeper, “The sooner you sit down and eat, the sooner you can go over.”

____

“You know she’s not gonna cave on this one, right squirt?” Her dad chimed in,

____

“Daddy!” Clarke scurries from the window to her dad’s arms in seconds, enveloping him in a hug so tight he almost topples over, unbalanced.

____

“I thought you were getting in tonight Jake?” her mom says,

____

“Caught the early flight, Kane needs extra hands. Some big experiment tonight.”

____

Abby raises her eyebrows in a bored sort of surprise but says nothing, turning back to the plate of eggs she’s preparing for Clarke.

____

“Can you drive me to school then Daddy?” Clarke says, finally letting her arms fall loose from the hug, 

____

Her dad grimaced, “Afraid not, I’m already late, Kane’s expecting me.”

____

Clarke’s face falls, and her mom takes note, “Didn’t you want to ride with Wells anyway?”

____

Clarke nods, and Abby continues, “Well if you go now, I bet you could still catch them.”

____

Her face lights up uneasily, “I haven’t had breakfast yet.”

____

“You can skip it. Just this once.” Abby says, and before she can remind Clarke again it’s a one-time thing, she’s already run down the hall to grab her bookbag.

____

Clarke can hear muffled voices from her room as she stuffs her reading book into the secret pocket. Loud voices. Yelling voices. She creeps back down the hall slowly, without making any footsteps.

____

“You always do this. Pop in when it’s convenient.” Her mom seethes,

____

“You think this is convenient?” Jake replies, “I’ve been on a plane for the past sixteen hours, I wanted ten minutes with our daughter, it’s not my fault every time I come by you’re chewing her out!”

____

“It’s called parenting!” Abby finally yells, “Try it for once in your life!”

____

Then they’re both quiet. Maybe the tense room finally got to them, or maybe they sense Clarke’s presence. 

____

Jake breaks first, “How long has that hall light been out?”

____

He points to the narrow hallway near Clarke’s room, the little light flickers on and off every couple seconds, before going dead for a minute or two.

____

“I don’t know.” Her mom replies, almost defeated.

____

“You should have someone come fix it,” Jake says, grabbing his suitcase off the chair where he left it and turning towards the door,

____

“You could fix it.” Abby replies, “Your tools are right here, the ladders in the closet at the end of the hall. It’s not that hard. Maybe put that engineering degree to work.”

____

“Goodbye Abby.” Her dad says sullenly.

____

Clarke waits a moment, for her dad to be out the door, before tiptoeing through the kitchen. Her mom was bent over the sink with her face in her hands, so she didn’t notice Clarke’s quiet escape.

____

She paused another moment, for Jake to pull out of the driveway, “Bye mom, I’m going to Wells’ I love you!”

____

She opened the door, waiting for Abby’s response, all she got was quiet, “I love you too”.

____

But she didn’t have time to dwell on her parents’ fights, she’d heard them fight plenty in her life, right now she was going to miss her ride.

____

She beelined for the house right across the street from her own, running through her grassy front yard, pausing at the street for a moment in case any crazy drivers barreled down the calm road.

____

None came, so she continued her jog, till she came to the great tall fence that blocked off Wells’ backyard.

____

Clarke’s house was beautiful, but Wells’ was magnificent. For all the impressive modern features her house had, Wells’ was classically gorgeous, and had been maintained in its original style from when it’d been built, hundreds of years ago.

____

With the exception of the pool built recently, the one Clarke found Wells swimming.

____

“Wells!” She cried, “What on earth are you doing?”

____

Wells didn’t even look up at her startled, “What does it look like I’m doing?”

____

“Making us late for school?” Clarke says indignantly, “It’s seven in the morning! How can you go swimming at seven in the morning?”

____

Wells had a habit of running off, only to be found floating in his pool at any given time. Take your eyes off him long enough, and he’d go swimming. It was like the pool was calling to him at any given moment.

____

It drove his father insane, he’d only built the pool for Wells to practice his laps, in preparation for the swim team, but ever since the addition was finished, it was incredibly difficult to fish his son out. 

____

“Your dad is gonna kill you.” Clarke said again, “You know he hates you swimming before school.”

____

“Yeah, and I don’t see why.” Wells says, finally looking up at her, “It’s good for you, swimming is.”

____

“It’s not about what’s good for you.” Jaha says, leaning on the sliding door near the porch, “It’s about discipline, and following directions.”

____

“Oh, Dad.” Wells says quietly, “I was just-”

____

“I know why Wells.” Jaha says, “I just wish you wouldn’t.”

____

Wells climbs out of the pool sadly, dripping water all over the deck, and through the floor to his room, Clarke only follows him to the kitchen.

____

“You need a ride, Clarke?” Jaha says, she just nods, looking towards Wells’ door, praying it opens soon. Praying he’ll save her from this terrible small talk.

____

“You’re not in any of Wells’ classes this year right?” Jaha asks,

____

“No,” Clarke responds,

____

“That’s a shame.” Jaha says, “But they split up the middle school differently than the elementary schools. It’s important to make new friends, get new experiences.”

____

Clarke wanted to scoff. She knew that. It wasn’t her first day or sixth grade. It was her forty-second day of sixth grade. She’s been keeping track.

____

And what did Jaha mean, ‘new friends’? Was he trying to say something? Did he not want her to hang around Wells anymore? If he was trying to keep them apart, he had another thing coming!

____

Wells comes out of his room, just in time for Clarke to not have to respond.

____

“Let’s go.” He says, grabbing his backpack off the counter, they all walk to the car quietly. Clarke hates the way Wells is around his dad. She hates the way everyone is around his dad.

____

The drive is mercifully short, but her thoughts aren’t pulled away from her underlying hatred of the man driving her. As she and Wells get out of the car, passersby stop and whisper, looking and staring as if she and Wells can’t see them.

____

Wells is a pro at ignoring them by now, but Clarke can’t seem to manage her death stare.

____

He taps her on the shoulder, to remind her, ‘it’s not everyday people see the governor in person. They’re not trying to be rude, they can’t help it.’

____

All that lecturing with just one tap, it’s a miracle really, Wells should go into motivational speaking or mind control. He’d be good at it.

____

And it’s true, she’s not really mad at the gawkers. She’s mad at the governor himself. Because he is the reason her dad doesn’t drive her to school anymore, and the reason her mom barely managed to say goodbye that morning. He’s the reason her life is over. He’s the one who ruined her family.

____

But what really boils her blood, is the fact everyone knows but is choosing to ignore it.

____

Wells breaks her out her angsty daydream when they get to the doors of the school. Not only are they in different classes in middle school, but they’re also practically in different wings of the middle school. They don’t even have lunch together.

____

“Come over tonight?” Wells asks before he turns towards his own class,

____

“Tonight?” Clarke repeats,

____

“Yeah, the sky’s gonna be clear. We can go swimming and stargazing. It’ll be perfect.”

____

Clarke glances back outside to the perfect baby blue sky, without a single fluffy white blemish, “I mean if it’s as clear as it is now.”

____

“It will be, we could even see a shooting star, plus my dad will be gone all night. Come over at midnight, I’ll be in the pool by then.”

____

“You’re always in the pool,” Clarke says,

____

“Well, then I’ll definitely be in the pool!” He calls out as he walks down the hall, she can’t help but smile at him.

____

Clarke doesn’t think there are many good people in the world, Wells is one of the few. She also thinks goodness isn’t something that’s taught or passed down, some people just are. She doesn’t know if she is, but Wells definitely is. Jaha has proven her theory right.

____

As she walks down the hall to her first period, she gets distracted by the murals on the wall, all painted by students, some better than others, when she bumps straight into another kid.

____

She drops to her knees, and her headband falls off her head onto the ground. She looks up to the person she bumped into, to apologize, but is met with a sneer.

____

“Sorry Ambassador Griffin, I’ll watch where I’m going next time, I’d hate to get dirt on your crown.”

____

The kid is tall and rectangular. She remembers him from somewhere, but can’t place his name. Before she can respond though, he kicks her headband further down the hall, laughs to himself, and walks away.

____

She mutters to herself just a little as she retrieves it. She’s never had it as bad as Wells, but her mom’s job hasn’t earned her any popularity points either.

____

What her mom does is a little less clear. She was formerly ambassador for the United States, till she got married and had Clarke, then she settled down in Arkadia, a small town twenty minutes outside the big city Polis. 

____

Otherwise known as suburban hell. 

____

Since then she’s risen up in the ranks of local government, and now she’s the governor’s, right-hand woman. Her duties include revising policies, overseeing the executive branch of the government, and cheating on her husband. And damn she is good at it.

____

So Clarke’s gotten used to subtle jabs at her, or rather her mom’s position, but this is the first time she’s ever truly been bullied for it.

____

Kind of dumb to bully someone for what their parents do, not like Clarke had any say in the matter. If she did, maybe her dad would still live with them.

____

The rest of the day is boring, classes go by slowly, lunch goes by quickly. She sits with a group of girls she’s known since pre-school but has never actually met. 

____

By the end of the day, she just wants to go home, but she can’t.

____

Wells has violin practice then swims after school every day and her dad’s working. 

____

It’s not a particularly long walk home, but it’s tedious. The sidewalk switches sides every couple of streets, and Clarke makes a note to have a chat with Janet from city planning about this.

____

At least it’s a nice day, the sun is shining, but she’s not sweating, the sky is beautiful, and she swells with excitement at the prospect of stargazing with Wells tonight.

____

But she’s got a lot of homework to finish, so as soon as she arrives at her empty house, she lays out her papers, and gets to work.

____

She’s never found school difficult, not in the way Wells always had. Even though his dad employs no less than five tutors, and insists he be in the highest level classes, she can see the internal struggle in his head every time they work together on homework.

____

The math just comes easy to her, all the numbers make sense. Science is just studying the patterns of things, and occasionally mixing stuff together, to study those patterns too.

____

History was a bit trickier, but she’d never forgotten a date. The readings they did were harder.

____

English was admittedly her weak point. She didn’t care about Jonas or his new job. She didn’t care about the Giver. But she did her best to answer those questions too.

____

Before she knew it, she was done, she glanced outside, and saw the sky had turned a light shade of pink. The sun was setting, her favorite part of the day.

____

She dragged a lawn chair from her garage to the backyard, facing the setting sun. She just sat there for a while, watching the squirrels scamper around the edges of her lawn.

____

The birds fluttered around the tops of trees around her house, all with the backdrop of vibrant pinks and reds, that faded in a deep blue sky. 

____

It was like she’d blinked, and suddenly the sky was dark, the moon had been slowly rising on the other side of her house, but had yet to light the night sky up.

____

She considered pulling her chair around to the other side when she realized if she was going to go to Wells’ at midnight, she better get some sleep now.

____

As she goes back through her house, she spots a small sticky note on the counter, she hadn’t noticed it in her rush to finish her homework that afternoon.

____

She frowns as she reads it, her mom will be held up at work all night, and her dad had said he’d be late that morning. Clarke can’t help but scoff, “I bet you’ll be held up.”

____

She crumples it in her hand and tosses it into the trash, before stomping towards her room.

____

Her bed is made, and her floor is spotless, but Clarke can’t help but wish there was a mess she could clean.

____

Instead, she crawls inside the sheets, and curls up around her comforter and pillows, falling into a fitful angry sleep.

____

She doesn’t really dream, she just remembers what it was like before everything went wrong.

____

It feels like another life, she wishes it was. Her family wasn’t the same one as before. She wishes her old family was still alive and well.

____

She’s woken up by a combination of thunder and pounding rain. She goes to the window to see angry droplets hit the pane. She can barely see Wells’s house with all the rain.

____

She glances at her clock, eleven fifty. Maybe tonight isn’t the best night for stargazing after all.

____

Or swimming for that matter.

____

Even Wells isn’t stubborn enough to go swimming in a thunderstorm, she rationalizes, but still, she tries to see if his porch light is on. She can’t quite get a good look with the awkward angle, and the pounding rain. 

____

Another clap of thunder startles her, and suddenly she wants to call her mom. The phone was all the way in the kitchen though. That hallway suddenly seemed awfully long.

____

She creeps down it slowly, telling herself this is dumb. Why would someone break-in during a storm? That was probably the worst time to break it.

____

But when every clap of thunder following a lightning strike, she flinches. Finally, she gets to the phone and shakily types out her mom's number.

____

It rings. And rings. Then again. Till she’s met with a robotic voicemail, “This is Abigail Griffin, I can’t come to the phone right now, please leave-”

____

She slams the phone back into the holster.

____

Her mom holed up in the office with Jaha. Probably waiting out the storm together. She turns back towards the hallway, where the little light flickers.

____

Maybe if their whole house wasn’t falling apart her mom wouldn’t feel the need to tear their family to shreds. 

____

Clarke knew it wasn’t rational. But before she could think, she’d grabbed her dad’s toolbox from the back of the kitchen, and retrieved the small ladder from the closet. It was an easy fix, just unscrew the cover, replace the lightbulb, and put it back.

____

Easy peasy. No one would even notice it was fixed.

____

Her mom would think her dad had done it for her. Her dad would think her mom had gotten someone to fix it. Maybe they would appreciate the other had followed their advice. Maybe that would foster a conversation between them. A civil one.

____

She sets the ladder down right underneath the light and steps up, but she’s too short. This ladder was made for grown men, she’ll need to stand on a higher step.

____

But there’s’ only two left, and both leave her just out of reach of the light fixture. 

____

Sighing she steps on top of the ladder, right on the sticker that warns you not to do that.

____

Finally, she can unscrew the light, so she starts in on the first screw, when a clap of thunder strikes suddenly, she gasps, her knees buckling, she nearly falls off the ladder.

____

Her arms flail as she regains balance, but she manages to stay atop the ladder.

____

Someone older, and wiser might’ve gotten off the ladder at this point. But Clarke was neither of those things.

____

Instead, she quickly finishes the first screw, and sets into the next one, trying to finish before the next clap of thunder. 

____

A few more unscrewed, and the little glass plate covering the light bulb is free, she carefully sets it down on the ground with the screws before she steps back up onto the ladder, and grabs the lightbulb.

____

It doesn’t quite budge out of its socket, so she tugs harder. The blinding light followed by flickering doesn’t help, but if she were to turn off the light, she’d be in complete darkness.

____

So she takes both hands and starts to turn the bulb, slowly it budges, scraping metal as she turns it. 

____

When she thinks she’s on the last turn needed to budge the broken bulb from the fixture, she hears another clap, but this one is louder, more of a boom than thunder. 

____

She looks out the window from the ladder, her hands still on the stubborn bulb.

____

It’s hard to see with all the rain obscuring her view, but it almost looks like some sort of wave of air is coming from the city, and traveling fast.

____

So fast that by the time she’s even processed that the wave of- whatever it is, is coming straight for her. 

____

So as she slides further away from the door, towards the wall, and her lungs fill with heavy smoke, she coughs. 

____

She wishes she didn’t, it only lets the strange figure know where she is with more certainty.

____

But it’s almost like he doesn’t see or feel the flames around them, he steps through them with ease, like the hallway is empty.

____

It’s seconds before he’s right in front of her, staring at her cowering body for a moment, before extending a hand.

____

She tucks her head into her knees, praying this is a dream or a nightmare. Her mind doesn’t even weigh the chances of surviving a kidnapping versus surviving this fire, all she knows is she wants him gone, she wants everyone gone.

____

The figure doesn’t wait for her to look back up though, he grabs her arms and hauls her over his shoulder, she doesn’t even fight him, just wails into his back.

____

Her eyes are squeezed shut so tightly, she can’t even see the orange tinge of her eyelids from the fire, she only knows she’s left the house when she can’t feel the prickling flames on her skin.

____

She opens up to the night sky, as the mystery man lays her on the grass. Just like it’d had been that morning, there wasn’t a single cloud as far as she could see. Like all the rain clouds had just scattered.

____

He was talking to her, but she couldn’t hear his words, only muffled droning.

____

“Clarke?” He repeats, and she looks to him, how did he know her name, “Are you OK? Are you burned?”

____

She shakes her head. By some miracle, she hadn’t been burned at all, though she didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious.

____

As she breathes in more fresh air, it’s like the smoke from her lungs clears out, and the fog in her brain goes away, and she recognizes his voice, “Wells?”

____

He nods and finally comes into focus. It’s Wells sitting there, in just a pair of swim trunks, still somehow dripping wet, even though he’d seemingly just walked through fire.

____

“How did you- how are you?” She interrupts when the siren of a firetruck closes in, they both look to the road and see the huge vehicle pull up, as multiple firemen jump into action.

____

An ambulance isn’t far behind them, and Clarke meekly approaches them and explains who she is. 

____

They ask her questions, most of which she doesn’t know the answer to.

____

She doesn’t know how it started, she doesn’t know where her parents are, and she says she doesn’t know how she got out because she figures she’ll have a hard time explaining Wells' rescue to them.

____

Plus she doesn’t think Jaha will approve of his son’s midnight swim.

____

She does assure them no one else is in there and agrees to go to the hospital even though she feels fine.

____

She rides with Wells in the ambulance, but he won’t meet her eyes. How did he do that? He walked through the fire like it was nothing.

____

She would’ve asked him if there wasn’t a quiet EMT sitting with them back there, and she tries to get him alone when they pull up outside the hospital, but they rush her into the backroom before she can say a word.

____

They’d already called her mom somehow, she doesn’t even remember giving them the number but she supposes Wells could’ve done that. She’s on her way.

____

Clarke still feels a little resentment though, she called her mom that night when she was scared, only to be left to voicemail. Maybe if she’d picked up, Clarke wouldn’t be in the hospital right now.

____

So she sits in the bed quietly as the nurse hurries around her mostly in silence. Except for every couple minutes someone mentions the storm, and how many people were being rushed to the hospital that night. 

____

Lots of property damage too, sounds like part of the city’s generator was damaged pretty badly, and whole neighborhoods are having blackouts,

____

Clarke can’t help but wonder what had happened, as the memory of the huge wave came back to her.

____

When Abby walks into the room, all thoughts of the storm are gone though. Her eyes are red and puffy. She’s been crying.

____

Serves her right, Clarke thinks, she ought to be guilty about ignoring her. She deserves a little pain, for all the misery she’s been causing Clarke the past few months.

____

“Clarke.” She says quietly,

____

“I don’t really want to talk to you,” Clarke responds in an equal whisper,

____

“What?” 

____

“Did you get my call?” Clarke asks, and Abby pauses in surprise,

____

“Yes, we were in the middle of budget negotiations, I told you I’d be late.”

____

“You left a sticky note for me. You didn’t tell me anything.” Clarke says, “And who is ‘we’?”

____

“Thelonious and I.” Abby says, “That’s not what I need to tell you though-”

____

“I don’t want to hear what you have to tell me!” Clarke exclaims, 

____

“Clarke there’s been an accident.”

____

“I don’t care about-” She stops short, “An accident? Who got in an accident?”

____

Abby pauses, her brows furrow, and her bottom lips quivering just a little. But she keeps her eyes open, focused on Clarke who’s sat up in her bed. She’s forcing herself not to blink, afraid to let the tears welling up in her eyes spillover.

____

“Dad.” She says finally, “Dad was in an accident tonight.”

____

Clarke feels pins and needles on her face and the deep plunge of her gut, “Is he ok?”

____

Abby shifts her stance again before remaking eye contact, “He didn’t make it.”

____

As if they were waiting, tears are running down Clarke’s face, she cups her chin with her hands, and sobs, curling into the thin hospital sheets, the lights flicker and she can feel Abby step closer.

____

Suddenly a hand on her shoulder, and she turns to face Abby, “Get away from me!”

____

Abby reels, and steps back, “Clarke?”

____

“I said get away!” She cries out again, “I hate you! I hate you! You killed him!”

____

The lights shut off completely, and Abby steps back again as if slapped, “I..I what?”

____

“You ruined our family, and now he’s dead!” Clarke yells, “Now you’re free to screw anyone you’d like! And he’s dead!”

____

“Clarke!” Abby calls out, looking towards the hallway where a few nurses stand, “Be quiet! People will hear you!”

____

“I don’t care!” Clarke cries, one more burst of rage has her throwing one of the limp pillows at her mom, before she shakily leans back onto the bed, before wrapping her arms around her knees and crying softly into them. As she cries, the lights flicker back on.

____

She doesn’t hear Abby leave the room, but she hears a new set of footsteps approach, she turns to look lamely, before catching a pitiful look from Wells and turning back towards her knees.

____

“I’m sorry about your dad,” Wells says,

____

Clarke glowers into her sheets silently,

____

“I know you don’t want to talk about it.”

____

“I don’t,” Clarke says,

____

“I know.” He replies, “I think you’ve probably got it worse. You remember your dad. You’ll miss him more.”

____

She curses to herself. She’d forgotten about Mrs. Jaha or the lack of one.

____

“You don’t miss your mom?” She asks,

____

“I don’t miss my mom.” Wells replies, “I miss a mom. Like when I want a sandwich, I think if I had a mom, she’d make me one. Or when I want to go to the bookstore, I think a mom would take me.”

____

“Oh.”

____

“I don’t really know enough about her to really miss her.” Wells says, “You can’t truly miss someone you never even met.”

____

She knows very little about Wells’ mom too. Nobody did. She’d died in childbirth twelve years ago.

____

“I’m sorry,” Clarke says quietly, 

____

“Me too,” Wells says. He doesn’t have to say whether he means he’s sorry about her dad or his mom, because she knows he’s sorry about both.

____

“Did you see something?” Wells asks suddenly, “Like, right before the fire?”

____

Clarke nods, “A wave of air or something. I’d never seen anything like it before.”

____

Wells nods, “I was swimming when it hit me. It’s like it pulled me underwater, I could ‘t get to the surface, but after a while, it was like I didn’t need to.”

____

“Didn’t need to go to the surface?” Clarke says, “Like what? Didn’t need to breathe?”

____

Wells nods, “Did anything like that happen to you?”

____

Clarke shakes her head, “No, I was just changing a light bulb, the blast knocked me off my ladder, but I don’t remember anything else.”

____

“Nothing?” Wells asked, 

____

“My hands hurt, I think I caught myself with them when I fell.”

____

“You didn’t see the start of the fire then?” Wells asks, and she shakes her head.

____

“Once I got out of the pool, I tried to get you, to make sure you were OK.” Wells starts, “When I saw the fire, it’s like I wasn’t even thinking, I just ran inside and pulled you out.”

____

“I know Wells, I didn’t thank you for that,” She starts, but he stops her,

____

“You never need to thank me for that Clarke,” he smiles, “But those flames were huge, and it’s like I didn’t even feel them. I could feel the water dripping off my body, and it’s like I concentrated them around the biggest part of the flames, so I could get to you.”

____

“You controlled the water?” Clarke asks, and Wells nods in confirmation, “That’s so cool.”

____

“I mean I guess.” He shrugs, “But why? What happened, what was in that wave?”

____

Clarke shakes her head, “Maybe it’s what started the fire, could be radiation.”

____

“Or maybe it was you?” Wells says,

____

“Me?”

____

“You said you were fixing a lightbulb? Well, I was swimming, and now I can control water.”

____

“You’re saying I can control light?” Clarke asks, 

____

Wells nods, 

____

“That’s ridiculous, I would’ve noticed if I could control light.”

____

“I know the lights flickered a lot when Abby came in here.”

____

“The city generator was damaged by the storm,” Clarke says,

____

“The hospital has its own generator, completely separate from the main power grid in case of emergency.”

____

“There’s no way.” Clarke says, “That’s just-it’s just crazy.”

____

“Crazy as water control?”

____

“Just about as crazy.” Clarke says

____

Wells smirks at her, “I’m not just accepting this, we’re gonna have to test this out.”

____

“Oh I can’t wait,” Wells replies, 

____

She’s about to snark back at him when a nurse cries out, “Turn to channel five, there’s breaking news!”

____

The TV outside is quickly switched, and Wells fumbles for the remote, changing the small TV to the channel in question. They stare at the broadcaster in silence, 

____

“Reports of a wave of radiation from Polis are coming in. This wave is highly radioactive and dangerous, and it’s affected a part of the population. The victims of this wave are showing strange new abilities, like control over elements, and other powers straight out of science fiction. If you’ve been in contact with this please contact authorities for help as soon as possible.”

____

Clarke and Wells stare at the screen for a few seconds after the report is over, even as light conversation returns in the hallways,

____

“We should tell someone.” Clarke says, “The police. They’ll be able to help.”

____

Wells is quiet, “No.”

____

“No?” Clarke asks, 

____

“We should wait. See what happens to people like us.”

____

“People like us?” Clarke asks,

____

“We don’t know what they’re gonna do with us. For now, we should keep our heads down, wait it out.”

____

“Wait it out.” Clarke says, “OK. I can do that.”

____

With that, Wells sat on the side of her bed, and she scooted over to give him more room to lay next to her. They sat in silent understanding.

____

But their decision would have an impact greater than they’d know, and for a second time that night, Wells Jaha saved Clarke Griffin’s life. Not that she’d ever had to thank him.

____


	2. A Calling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...hey
> 
> I realize it has been over 6 months since I updated this... you can thank h4ltich for leaving me a comment in a bookmark...
> 
> this isn't as long as the first chapter but it's kind of a lil inbetweener for the next chapter which will be more eventful. I recommend skimming the first chapter before reading this so you know what's going on. Hope you enjoy!! <3

A small part of her wished that she'd come out that night. It would have been over with a lot quicker that’s for sure. 

Painful? Yes. For a short period of time. Which sounded a lot better than the four years of torture Clarke endured internally.

She wasn’t alone though. Wells was in the same boat as her, in every way she could imagine. From having to keep his newfound powers a secret to having to watch their parents come clean about their relationship, not to mention watching their parents become the biggest supporters of the wave victims, or wavic’s ‘protection policy’.

The policy might be protecting somebody but it certainly wasn’t wavics. All it did was limit the jobs they could hold, segregate them from their friends and family, and eventually land them in jail when they didn’t comply with the new set of rules they had to follow. And their parents were the champions behind the whole thing.

So yes. Watching how twenty-five percent of the population suddenly became wanted criminals for being at the wrong place at the wrong time on that fateful night wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. By the time Clarke was in the tenth grade, half the wavic population was incarcerated, a quarter was dead, and the rest were in hiding. Clarke and Wells included.

And what a place to hide. Sitting across the dinner table from the pioneers of rules and regulations that would strip them of all their rights. In the short period of chaos following the wave, their parents moved up even further in the government, mostly due to their popular stances on the problem of wavics. 

If Clarke’s being honest it wasn’t the fear of her mother that kept her silent, it was the fear of herself. By day she went to high school, did homework, sketched. By night she snuck out onto the terrace of their mansion. She couldn’t see much despite how high it was from the ground, the side effect of living in the gated section of a gated community. 

But there, no one would be able to see her stick her hand into the air and watch the crackles of light flicker between her fingers.

The beams of energy slide down her arm, encasing her body in sparkling vines. In those moments she could feel the hum of electricity that ran through her house, she felt every lightbulb, every machine, every power source. She never held it long, the humming scared her.

She never asked Wells if he tested his powers out. Jaha had pulled him from the swim team shortly after the Wave, and the house he and Abby moved into shortly after didn’t have a pool.

But water was everywhere wasn’t it? Surely he felt the same connection to it that she felt to electricity?

She’d been wondering a long time, too afraid to ask. They’d almost never spoken of it since that night and she wasn’t about to be the one to bring it up.

Till Wells did.

“Aren’t you a little tired of it all?” Wells asked one day as they walked to school, finally free of a chaperone or bodyguard that Jaha had insisted on for years after the Wave, for fear of attack from a wavic.

“Tired of what?” Clarke asks, not quite paying attention, she was trying to catch a picture of the trees for a reference, she loved painting the colors of the newly changed leaves in fall.

“Hiding,” Wells says, and he doesn’t have to elaborate, Clarke knows the only thing they hide, and she stops short and turns to him.

“It’s not like we have much of a choice.” She says, looking up and down the street to see if anyone’s walking by them, “Why would you bring this up now?”

“It’s been years Clarke,” Wells says, “We aren’t kids anymore.”

“Legally we are.” Clarke says, “We’re in high school, we live with our parents, it’s not like we can join the rebellion and still have time for band practice.”

“What if I said I don’t really care about band practice!” Wells says, “We’ve lived in perfect comfort while people like us are killed or imprisoned. We have the ability to help!”

“We have powers!” Clarke says, “Powers we didn’t ask for, that we don’t know how to use. Best case scenario we hurt ourselves or someone else.”

“I guess you’re starting to believe the propaganda they spew then.” Wells says, “That wavics aren’t human anymore. That we deserve everything that’s happening.”

“Of course not!” Clarke says, “But I don’t know what you think we’re going to be able to do!”

“I have a friend.” Wells says quietly, “He knows people in the rebellion. Something’s going down tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to help. I was hoping you would come with me.”

“A friend?” Clarke says, “Does he know you have powers? He could just be luring you into a trap!”

“No!” Wells says, “He thinks I’m just a sympathizer.”

“Have you seen how they treat sympathizers?” Clarke says, “Not much better than wavics. If this is a setup, you’re gonna be in a world of trouble even if they don’t realize you’re one of them.”

“One of them?”

“You know what I mean.” Clarke spits, “It’s smarter to wait. No one suspects us. Maybe things will change soon and we can come clean without having to do anything.”

“What if it doesn’t change? What if it gets worse?” Wells says, “The longer we hide the harder it will be to fix things. Maybe if we’d helped them when this started it wouldn’t be as bad now!”

“When we were twelve years old?” Clarke cries, “Maybe we would’ve gotten ourselves killed. Besides it was your idea to hide.”

“You went along with it, now I need you to go along with me again.” Wells says, “This is important. I can’t stand by why people like us are being killed.”

“Then go.” She says, “Be a hero. Die. Get locked up. I don’t care. I can’t stop you from doing something stupid. I never could. But I won’t be there to pick you up when you fall. Not this time.”

And then it was quiet. Any other kids in their neighborhood probably chose to catch a ride to school since it was getting colder, so the street remained clear and silent, the two of them at an impasse. 

When Wells broke it yet again.

“Fine. Don’t come with me. Don’t bother trying to help at all. I hope you’re content to stay scared your whole life though.” 

He walked past her towards their school and she took a moment to collect herself before following at a distance. She wiped away stray tears that rolled down her face as she quickly strode closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another big thanks to h4ltich for kicking my ass, much love
> 
> I will legitimately forget this exists unless you comment so if you want the next chapter please leave me one!


	3. The Wells Jaha Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey little bitch? Yeah, you. This is a chapter update. Get used to it.
> 
> Haley? Stop stalking me bitch, fan behavior.

Sinking into the deep end of a pool was supposed to be one of the simple pleasures life had to offer. Like cotton candy at a baseball game, or warm laundry out of the dryer. It was just one of those things that never got old no matter how many times you did it.

But drowning seemed to ruin it somehow. 

Wells’ was aware he was at fault for this one. Swimming during a thunderstorm was not his best idea to date. 

After a few moments of thrashing though, his arms still. He could see the little droplets of rain meet the surface of the pool, but after a moment less and less fell. The rain was stopping, the clouds dispelled. 

Like the storm blew itself away in a matter of seconds. Wells was still underwater though.

The most curious thing about this is that he wasn’t having a terribly difficult time breathing, despite being underwater.

He might be in shock. Or dead. The huge wave of air that pushed him under as the storm got really bad just a few moments ago might’ve just killed him.

He tentatively went to the surface of the pool, as soon as he was above water he took a breath. It felt exactly the same as the one he’d taken underwater. 

He went back down. Still breathing.

“Huh.” He said to himself,

He needed to show Clarke. She’d know what to do.

He hopped out of the pool as soon as he’d thought of her, and before even drying himself off, he headed out the front gate and to the street.

If it weren’t for the obvious horror Wells felt at that moment, the scene on the street might’ve been quite beautiful.

Clarke’s house was engulfed with flames. They came out every window, and dance on the edge of every roof. 

The electric reds and oranges were beautiful, but the inside of the house was already turning a charred black, so without thinking Wells charged the house.

The closer he got the flame, the harder it was to breathe, but he had an idea.

There were puddles of water up and down the streets, and the second he called to them they came. Suddenly he was covered in a thin layer of water all over his body. As he neared the house, he was able to breathe through the water, and it put out any fire that came too close to his body.

He had to focus hard to keep the layer from evaporating in the heat, and when he saw Clarke he almost let go of the whole thing.

She was crouched in the middle of the hallway, completely unharmed except she was shaking. She looked up at him without recognition and tried to get away as he approached.

Neither of them says a word as he picks her up, and tries to drag her out of the house. She doesn’t fight him, but she doesn’t stand either. She mostly just drags, like dead weight, making the whole thing that much harder.

He doesn’t speak till they’re out after he lays her on the front lawn and collapses next to her. She just stares at the burning building silently till he calls her name. Finally, she seems to realize it’s him.

Before he can ask or answer any questions, an ambulance pulls up outside the house. He thinks he probably should’ve called them himself.

The hospital is cold and boring. He wants to talk to Clarke, he wants to figure things out. He’s surprised when his own father finds him in the waiting room a few hallways away from where Clarke’s being looked at.

Jaha sits next to him, and fiddles with his hands a moment before bluntly saying, “Jake Griffin is dead.”

Wells blinks. He opens his mouth as if he has something to say but he doesn’t. How do you respond to that? He’d never been informed of his mother’s death, he always just knew about it. He’d never grieved her, just missed her. He knew that was different. 

Finally, he manages to choke out a word, “How?”

“Accident.” Jaha replies curtly, “At his work. Possibly caused by the storm. They’re still looking into it.”

“By the storm?” Wells asks, “How could a storm-”

“This wasn’t a normal storm Wells. Things have happened. Unexplainable things.” Jaha says, only glancing at his son a moment before continuing, “I’ve heard about accidents, events all over the city, and around the world.”

“What kind of events?” Wells asks,

“Freaks. Mutants.” Jaha says, then turns to him, “You haven’t seen anything like that, have you?”

For a moment, Wells wished he could be honest. He wishes he could tell his dad all about the swimming pool, and the water, and the fire. But even if he wasn’t already calling people freaks, the quirk of his brow and the frown growing on his father’s lips told him everything he needed to know about his opinion of these… freaks.

“No, dad.” Wells shakes his head, “I haven’t seen anything.”

“Good.” Jaha says, standing up, “You should go see Clarke.”

Without another word, he turns and strides down the hallway, Wells follows after a minute before he finds Clarke’s room.

He only finds it from the yelling though, and lights. They flicker up and down the corridor, machines up the hall are malfunctioning, and they only stop once the yelling quiets, and Abby Griffin shuffles out of Clarke’s room.

Wells thinks to himself, he’s in more trouble than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter summary was really aggressive, sorry about that. thanks for reading. I didn't edit this at all, as you prob noticed. oh well. 2021 sucks balls and so does my writing quality. :)


	4. I Can Cry If I Want To

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haley...there's plenty of unsucked nuts for you to occupy your time with...instead of reading this baby
> 
> Gonna try to post more regularly but don't hold me to that

Wells didn’t go to school that day. He must have ducked out after first period. She definitely saw him enter the building but by lunch, he was gone.

This would’ve been big news, Wells Jaha skipping school? How scandalous. 

But in fourth period a junior gets escorted out of the school in handcuffs. He was an empath. His best friend accidentally told his parents who ratted him out to the local police. She’d never seen the kid before that day, she didn’t know his name.

If not for her mom’s notoriety, she doubted he’d know hers.

And yet they were bonded somehow, both of them had this responsibility and curse thrust upon them without their consent. He would’ve been a year older than her when the blast hit, but he looked so young as they pulled his head into the cop car and drove him away.

Not many kids from her school had been taken, none had been picked up directly from the school. But she’d heard stories and seen pictures of mass roundups of wavics down to kindergarten.

This wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t her responsibility to save them all. She wasn’t some rebellion leader, she wasn’t one of the vigilantes that worked the streets at night. Like Silver Tounge, who’d been around for a little under two years. She didn’t have the kind of powers let alone experience to help anyone.

She leaves the school as the last period bell rings, her home is empty, Abby’s speaking at a conference a few cities away and Jaha works late every night. She doubts Wells went right home after skipping.

She’s surprised then to find a man sitting at her front steps, with a binder and some flowers. 

“Hello?” She asks tentatively, wondering how he even got past the gates that blocked her house from the outside world.

He looks up startled as if he’s not sitting on her porch, “Oh hello there! I’m looking for Abby Griffin.”

“She’s not home.” Clarke says, then after a lame pause, “Do you want to leave a message?”

“You must be Clarke.” He snaps his fingers like the name just came to him,

She blinks, “Yeah?”

“I mean the resemblance is uncanny.”

“Thanks,” Clarke smiles politely, she’s always told she looks like her mom, but she knows she doesn’t. Secretly she thinks if her hair wasn’t quite so bright blonde, she’d look a lot more like her dad.

“Can I come in for a moment?”

She pauses again, “I’m really not supposed to let people in.”

“Oh my gosh!” He smiles, “I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Marcus Kane, I used to work with your father.”

She freezes. She’d never met the man as a kid, he was always working, usually with her father right alongside him. He certainly fits the bill, eccentric, awkward. 

“Um, ok yeah I guess,” Clarke says, and she unlocks the door, holding it open behind her.

“Did you hear about the arrest earlier today?” Kane says suddenly, she cringes to herself, the arrest of a wavic usually spawned gossip for the town for weeks afterward, but she didn’t expect a near-perfect stranger to bringing it up so casually.

“Oh yeah, he went to my school.” She recipes, “Can I get you something to drink?”

“No, no,” He waves his hand dismissively, “Terrible thing they’ve done to him, just awful.”

She blinks, “What?”

“The poor kid.” Kane continues, “He was what? Seventeen? His whole life ruined, because of something he can’t even control.”

Clarke just stared at him. Was this a joke? A setup? Did someone send him? Did someone know? Wells had been loud that morning, but she was sure she hadn’t seen anyone on the streets during their argument.

She swallowed hard, and turn to the sink as if to pour herself some water, “Unregistered wavics are illegal, he should have turned himself in.”

Kane was quiet, “If he’d turned himself in, what do you think would have happened?”

“He would be processed.” Clarke replied, keeping her tone light, “His level of danger to himself and others would be assessed. Then he would be placed accordingly.”

“Placed in jail. Or sent back into society with no rights. Or worse, just disappeared off the face of the earth.”

“Why are you saying this?” Clarke turns back, “Are you here for something?”

“What would I be here for Clarke?”

“Me.” she choked out, tears danced dangerously on her lashes, and the cup she’d filled with water shook in her hand, “I think… you’re here for me.”

“Why would I be here for you Clarke?” Kane asks, gently, as if he wasn’t killing her, actively killing her, “Are you one of them?”

“No.” She shook her head but her face was crushed, the tears spilled over, and the cup shook so hard water started to spill, “I...I’m not… I promise.”

Deny. Deny. Deny. They couldn’t prove anything yet. They had no evidence. She could still get out of this.

“I am.” 

Her eyes shot open.

“What?”

“I’m one of them,” Kane said simply,

She shook her head, “No you’re not.”

“Why not?”

“Are you trying to get us killed?” Clarke said, slamming the cup onto the counter, “You can’t just say that!”

“No one’s here Clarke!” Kane replied,

“People could overhear us!” She yells back, “Why would you tell me that, now I’m implicated, I have to tell someone!”

“But you won’t Clarke.” Kane says, “Because you’re one of us.”

“No, I’m not!” Clarke says, and the lights above them flicker, Kane looks at them suspiciously before turning back to her, “You need to join the fight, Clarke.”

“I can’t.” She says, “I-I’m scared.”

“That’s ok.” Kane says, stepping towards her, the lights flicker again but he doesn’t look this time, “Being afraid is normal, it’s natural, it’s human.”

“I’m...I’m not human,” Clarke says,

“Yes, you are. We all are.” Kane says, “More than them even. You only lose your humanity when you stop fighting, when you let things like this happen, that’s when you’re a monster.”

“What, so I’m supposed to be the next Silver Tounge?” Clarke croaks, “I can’t just walk the streets and stop burglaries.”

“I think you’ll find a better place in the rebellion.” Kane says, “I hear your friend is joining up with them.”

“You heard us?” Clarke asks,

“I’ve been watching you for a little while, I knew you’d been changed.” Kane says, “My power is finding people like us.”

“You can sense it?” Clarke asks, and he nods

“Not the most exciting,” Kane says, “I wouldn’t be much help to the rebellion, in fact, I’d probably benefit the people who want to hunt us more than I’ll ever help the cause, so I mostly stay out of it.”

Clarke nods, and he continues, “But you? You and little Jaha? You’re exceptional. Your powers are exceptional. You can turn the tides, you can be the change.”

“I don’t know how.” Clarke says softly,

“Find Wells, he’s with them now, and he’s going to need your help.”

Clarke nods, without a thought about the strange new man in her house, when or where her mom or Jaha is, she walks out the door, looking for her best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me when i see cookie dough  
> es hora de comer
> 
> seriously don't eat a ton of cookie dough, I felt sick all day it sucked
> 
> leave me a comment gracias


	5. Waving Back at You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> heyy, Haley? eat shit and die bb, or fuck an eagle scout, idc, don't read this thanks babe
> 
> everyone who isn't haley, hi ur welcome for updating, I cut my finger on a saw the other day and it really hurts, it just skinned my finger but it's in a really annoying spot

Downtown never really bounced back from the wave. A quarter of the population had been imprisoned or hiding, and the rest of the population terrified, the formerly bustling area in her town just wasn’t as popular as it had once been.

But now, as Clarke neared the heart of her town, it looked almost normal. Crowds of people of all ages were standing around on the streets. People especially hoovered around TV’s that were facing towards the front window of stores. As she neared she could see they were watching the news.

“What’s going on?” She asks as she joins the crowd, a rather tall man turns to her, 

“The terrorists are living in sewers!” He grinned, and pointed to a nearby manhole cover, “You just missed it, a ton of police just went down there to get them!”

She stared at the street he’d pointed at a moment, before thanking the man and walking away from the crowd. 

She needed to warn them. She needed to help. Without thinking about it long enough to change her mind, she walks a couple of streets down to a deserted road, pried open the first manhole cover she found, and started descending the ladder into the sewer.

She immediately regretted her choice.

She didn’t know where the rebels were, and worse she didn’t know where the police were. Every so often she could hear the faint sound of voices echo, but her only direction was to walk towards where she thought the crowds had gathered.

Her steps were as quiet as they could be, with a thin layer of water on the bottom of the floor, she made a tiny splash with each one. She crept around every corner and paused a moment before continuing.

As she turned around what felt like the one-hundredth corner, the reality of her situation set in. 

What if she never found anyone? What if it was too late? What if the police shot her on-site? What if the rebels killed her on accident. 

Her thoughts almost distracted her from the quiet splashing she could hear from ahead of the tunnel, quickly she ducked into a smaller hallway tunnel, and pressed her body to the wall. She could hear whispering now, but she couldn’t make out the words.

The splashing got louder, and she could hear whispers go back and forth. She still didn’t know who it was though, so she scooted further and further away from the main hallway, till the first of the group passed her.

Two men dressed in all black, carrying guns on their shoulders went past first, their faces were covered with helmets. Two more followed after them, then another pair. It felt like the line was never-ending. The light chatter got louder, as more and more soldiers passed Clarke, till she was finally close enough to hear.

“They’re boxed in now,” a familiar voice said, “Should be easy to flood their tunnels.”

“Like fish in a barrel.” Another voice agreed, and finally, the last two walked past Clarke. Both were women, dressed in similar outfits to the soldier, but without helmets or guns.

Instead, they both carried big tablets and had headphones, but even without seeing her face completely, Clarke instantly recognized one of them as her mother.

She was supposed to be a couple of states away giving a lecture at a college, not wading through a sewer, organizing the death of the rebellion. Clarke edged closer to the hallway as her mom passed and watched her go further down the tunnel and eventually follow the soldier around another corner. 

Clarke stared at the now-empty tunnel, she wants to run after them, she’s so angry she could scream. She steps towards the hallway her mom went down when she hears a splash behind her. 

She whips around expecting another group of soldiers, but instead, a young girl stood in the middle of the sewer. 

Before Clarke could say a word the girl took off, making loud splashes as she went. Clarke cringed at the noise but followed at a similar pace, praying the group of soldiers were far away.

“Wait!” Clarke said, not quite yelling so her voice didn’t carry, but loud enough for the girl she was chasing to hear over the splashes their steps made, “I’m with you! I’m trying to join the rebellion!”

The girl didn’t look back or acknowledge Clarke’s words, she just continued to speed down the halls, Clarke could feel herself losing her breath, but she was determined to catch the girl if only to stop her from running head-on into the group of soldiers. 

She was so focused on the chase, she almost didn’t notice the water on the floor start to rise, she didn’t see it until the tops of her sneakers were suddenly drenched. She stopped running for a second to look behind her and she could see the water was pouring into the halls.

“What’s happening?” The girl asked, Clarke, snapped her head forward, the girl had stopped running too, 

“Their flooding the sewers,” Clarke said, “Trying to drown the rebellion.”

“I have to get back,” the girl replied, and this time she took Clarke’s hand before starting to run down the hall, Clarke didn’t even have a chance to question the strange girls change of heart because the water level on the floor was still rising.

“Where are you going?” Clarke finally asked,

“They were waiting over here,” she responded vaguely

Clarke looked around the halls of the sewers, each corridor looked the same as the last, and had water flooding in, suddenly the girl pulled her into down the last hallway in the main sewer Clarke could see a little room at the end of the tunnel.

“Is that them?” Clarke asked,

The girl only nodded and seemed to run faster, now dragging Clarke behind her.

They sped right into the room, filled with people who all turned to stare at her, before noticing the girl next to her, 

“Charlotte!” One exclaimed, “Where did you go?”

The girl, Charlotte, Clarke supposed, shrugged, and pointed to Clarke, “Found her around.”

The room’s attention turned back to Clarke, who paused awkwardly, “I’m looking for my friend Wells, he said he was coming to join you guys today-”

“Clarke?” from the back of the room emerged Wells, he was grinning and he quickly enveloped her in a hug, “I knew you’d come.”

“Well, I’m thrilled you guys got reunited before we all die.” a guy leaning on the wall remarks, 

“Now that Charlotte’s back we can leave though!” Someone else exclaimed, “The lower sewers are still open, the secret tunnel is still down the hallway.”

“How exactly are we supposed to leave without drowning?” the man quips again, and Clarke rolls her eyes,

“Seems like you have a lot of criticism for someone who doesn’t have any better plans.” She says, 

“Listen… Claire-”

“Right,” he waves his hand, “We’ve been planning this escape for months, everything was going fine until you and your little friend here showed up.”

“Shut up, Murphy,” Charlotte says, “This would’ve happened anyway, maybe they could help us?”

“Wells could hold back the water, right Wells?” Clarke suggested

“I’ve never tried… but yeah I guess I could.”

“He won’t be able to do anything if Charlotte’s anywhere near him,” Murphy remarks, “She renders us powerless.”

“Then Charlotte leaves first, while the water levels are low,” Clarke says, “I’ll stay behind with Wells, and once everyone’s clear he can send the water back towards them while we make our escape.”

The group considered it a moment, before Murphy shrugged, “I guess since the other option is dying in a sewer, it couldn’t hurt.”

“That’s the spirit,” Clarke replies,

Charlotte leaves with the first group, only three people accompany her since it’s too risky to send a big group without potentially giving away their location. As soon as Charlotte disappears down the hall Wells is able to start holding water away.

“As soon as they notice the water is blocked, they’ll know where we are.” Murphy comments

“Thank you, Murphy, very helpful,” Clarke says,

The next group leaves shortly after, this time ten go at once, Murphy was right, their location is all but given, they can’t waste any more time.

“Time for you to head out Murphy,” Clarke says after a few more minutes, the wall of water Wells is holding up is as tall as them now, and she can hear the whispers of soldiers on their way.

Murphy looks torn for a second as if he wants to stay with them, but he must decide against it, instead, putting on a grin and saluting them as he walks away down the hall and towards the exit tunnel.

The water Wells is holding back grows more and more each second, and he’s starting to sweat,

“Try and send it back now Wells?” Clarke asks, 

Wells grunts in response, and slowly the wall of water that took up the entire width of the hallway entrance a second ago starts to narrow and consolidate as Wells pushes it back down the hall, all he needs to do is push it far enough from them so they can make their way to the exit tunnel before he isn’t able to hold it anymore.

He pushes the water further down the hall past adjoining hallways, but when it’s almost at the end footsteps through the halls get louder, and Clarke can hear the voices of soldiers.

“Delta Team! We have found the terrorists in tunnel section G!” one of them shouts, and Wells falters, some of the water is lost from his grip and it rushes back towards them.

Clarke is so overwhelmed by the shouting, she doesn’t hear the reply on the comm unit, “Fire at will.”

But Wells does.

Before her eyes a column of water rushes in front of her, catching bullets inches from her face. 

She flinches and falls backward only just catching herself with her arms.

The bullets don’t stop though, and after a second Wells falls beside her. The water gushes from the halls tripping soldiers up and landing them on their asses, but the water around Clarke and wells is dark and red.

“Wells?” Clarke mutters, inching towards him, two gaping wounds on his chest drip even more blood into the water, but she holds him like they aren’t there.

“Wells…” She whispers,

“Clarke?” He replies softly, she pulls away and wipes some of the water off his face, as he smiles at her, “It’s ok.”

“No, it’s not.” She says, “No, it’s not.”

But his eyes aren’t moving anymore, and his smile drops slowly.

Clarke grips him even tighter, sinking from her knees further into the water, before sobbing silently. 

With each cry lights up and down the hallways flicker and burst, and soldiers who were just getting back up onto their feet freeze and drop to the ground, electricity ran through the water that flowed all around the sewers, killing men throughout the system.

With every sob, Clarke sent more bursts of electricity out, until it was silent, except for the soft hum of running water and her crying. 

She wasn't sure how long she sat there, holding Wells’ body, soaking wet, and alone before Murphy snuck up on her.

“Clarke?” He whispered, even though no one was there, “Come one, we have to go.”

Clarke blinked and looked up at him, “What?”

“We need to leave, they’re gonna send reinforcements down soon.”

“I-I can’t just leave him...” she looked back to Wells’ body, riddled with bullet holes, and Murphy winces, 

“I’m really sorry… but if they find out you did this,” he looks down the hallway, still flooded with water, a few dead bodies float, “They’ll kill you, Clarke, or worse.”

She looks to Wells’ face and brushes away some blood off his chin, lightly kisses his forehead, and stands up slowly, turning to Murphy, “How do we get out of here?”

He starts to point down the hall when they both hear splashing from nearby, loud voices follow, and Murphy curses to himself, “Fuck, they’re early.”

“Come on!” Clarke panics, crying out and starting down the hallway where the others escaped, “We can still go this way.”

“Shut up!” Murphy exclaims, grabbing her hand and holding a finger to her lips as a pack of soldiers rounds the corner to the hall where they stand, as they get closer Clarke flinches, but Murphy doesn’t run, instead, he pulls her to the wall of the hallway, flat against the concrete.

Right before her eyes, the soldiers run past her, calling out orders to search the area and identify bodies, but none of them spare a glance at her or Murphy, who is only inches away.

Clarke looks at Murphy bewildered, but he just shrugs, waiting a few minutes for the last of the soldiers to disappear down the hall he starts leading her back down the sewers, to where she entered, he gestures to the very ladder she descended alone not long ago.

“You go up first, but go slow, I’m going to hold on to your ankle, don’t move without me,” he whispers and shushes her when she tries to ask a question. 

She starts up the ladder, but, before Murphy lets go of her hand, he grabs her leg, and once she’s climbed up the ladder almost to his height, he starts climbing after her.

The manhole cover is harder to move from below, but after a minute, she manages to move the edge and push the rest of it off, and open it enough to climb out. She goes slow so that Murphy doesn’t lose his grip on her leg, and then he transfers back to her hand once they're both out of the sewer.

The street looks exactly the same as when she went inside, but she can hear an even bigger commotion not far away. The crowds of people gathered downtown had grown bigger, and the military and police force had too. She starts walking towards them but Murphy pulls her away.

“That’s the opposite of the way we’re going.” He says, walking quickly in the other direction,

“Oh, so we can talk now?” Clarke says, “Care letting me know what the hell just happened?”

“I saved your life.” Murphy says, “That’s what just happened.”

Clarke rolls her eyes, “I mean how? What did you… do?”

“I turned us invisible.”

Clarke scoffs, but Murphy doesn’t smile sarcastically or laugh back, and Clarke considers it, “Really?”

Murphy nods, looking up and down the street one more time before he crosses it, and starts down a dark alley, “Yes, really,”

“How do you even do that?”

“How do you shoot lightning out of your hands?”

Clarke blinked, “I don’t know.”

He stops at the end of the alley and pulls a big tarp off what Clarke had assumed was a big pile of garbage, that actually turned out to be a car that was covered in garbage, Murphy moves to the drivers’ seat, “Get in”

She follows after him and sits down in the passenger seat, and as he looks through his pocket for his keys Clarke asks, “Where are we going?”

“You wanted to join the rebels right?” Murphy says, “We’re going to the rebels.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fucking love murphy he's such a shit head. I think I would choose invisibility as my superpower what about y'all?
> 
> oh btw didn't edit this even a little so if you find any typos, mistakes, or whatnot lmk


	6. The Disappearing of John Murphy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I cannot stress *enough* how little I edited this. Wrote it in an hour, saved it as a draft the next day, and posted it the next week. I'm kinda liking the weekly update type posting schedule but we'll see how things go.
> 
> Haley fuck off.
> 
> All others enjoy.

Murphy gulped, he’d done it now. He’d really fucking done it now.

The man in front of him grinned, “Tough luck happens to the best of us.”

Murphy nodded, dug through his pocket, “I only have half right now… I can get the rest tomorrow, Arlo”

He forks over the dollar bills, and Arlo frowns, “I see, you’re not gonna leave town are you?”

Murphy shakes his head, “No, Arlo.”

“You know I hate a disappearing act,” he says, “You need a little sneak peek of what we’re gonna do to you if you don’t turn up tomorrow?”

Murphy looks around the room, most of the gamblers had left by then, taking their winnings, Murphy was the only one who lost big that night, “No Arlo,”

Murphy could still see Arlo’s men in the back, and he knew he wasn’t alone. He wasn’t dumb, despite public opinion, and he’d already lost a lot of cash, he didn’t need to add a finger to stuff Arlo took from him that night.

“Good,” Arlo said, turning to the betting table, “You should thank me for letting someone of your age even play.”

He’s quiet, and Murphy realizes he means that literally, “Thank you, Arlo.”

Arlo smiles, “You’re going into your sophomore year?”

Murphy nods, but it’s a lie, he wasn’t even going into high school. His above average height and general lankiness convinced most people he was older than he was, but Murphy thought Arlo would let him play even if he knew Murphy was only 12. 

Arlo would let a kindergartener play if he thought he could make some money off them.

And Murphy felt like a kindergartener that night, he’d lost big for the first time in a while, usually, it was him swindling other suckers, not the other way around. 

His dad was going to kill him.

“You can go,” Arlo said finally, probably bored of teasing him, “Say hi to the old man for me?”

Murphy nodded, trying not to flinch, he wasn’t even sure if Arlo was trying to rile him up with that last remark or not. 

He left the club not long before midnight. When he’d arrived earlier that night the sky had been clear and starry, but now it was downpouring.

“Fuck.” Murphy muttered to himself, he hadn’t brought a coat let alone an umbrella, and his house was blocks away,

He resigned himself to a walk in the rain and quickly started down his path.

As he walked, and his clothes got even more soaked, he started to crunch the numbers. He didn’t have the other half of the money, he barely had the first half. Paying rent that month was going to be a whole other problem.

His dad was going to hit the roof, be so mad that Murphy wasn’t even sure he’d spot him, so what was the point of telling him anyway?

He’d find out somehow, his dad always seemed to have an ear for rumors, especially about his dipshit son.

He’d have to stop by the high school on the other side of town and see if those private school kids wanted some cigarettes, or maybe he could visit the dump the next morning and find some salvageable trash. 

He was thinking so hard, he didn’t even realize how long and fast he’d been walking, and looking up to his own house surprised him.

He paused, the shit hole seemed to be holding up in the storm somehow, and he could see a light was on in the TV room. His dad was awake.

He walked in quietly, telling his dad things in the morning was always preferable, but he wasn’t quiet enough.

“John?” He cried, slurred and slow, “Come here?”

Murphy steps into the cramped room, there’s only enough space for his dads armchair and a box TV they’d found at goodwill when he was a kid, a couple of beers sitting on the floor next to the chair must’ve gotten knocked over at some point, a puddle of bud lite drips onto the floor.

“Hey dad,” Murphy says awkwardly, 

His dad grips either side of the chair pushing himself to his feet, “Where you been son? Been a long time no see.”

“It’s only been a week,” Murphy gulped, “You know I always make it home.”

“Didn’t answer my question boy,” his dad takes a step closer, “Where you been?”

Murphy rocks on his feet, willing himself not to step back, “With my friends mostly, hanging around.”

“That’s funny.” 

Murphy blinks, “How’s that?”

“Didn’t know you were friends with Arlo at that club downtown,” he dad says, now only a foot away from Murphy, so close he can’t practically taste the beer on his breath, “I just got a call from a buddy of mine, says you were down there betting some big money.”

“Yeah, yeah I was.”

“He said you lost. Big time.”

“Happens. Arlo even said so, just some bad luck,” Murphy shrugs, his jaw tensing as his dad inches even closer,

“Oh did he? I bet he still wants his payment, doesn’t he? And I bet you put up more money than you had.”

Murphy’s silent and his dad grins, “And I bet, you wanna ask me to bail you out, don’t you?”

Before Murphy can even think of a response his dad backhands him so hard he falls backward to the ground, hitting his head on the wooden floor, he looks up at his dad in shock,

“I let you get a little too used to me always being around, didn’t I?” His dad shakes his hand out, “I spoiled you.”

His dad steps towards him and he doesn’t waste another second on the ground, instead, he’s shuffling to his feet and dashes down the hall towards their small backyard, if he managed to jump the fence before his dad really got a hold of him he might just be able to get away.

The hallway is narrow and Murphy’s tripping over his own feet to get down it, if his dad wasn’t so wasted he would’ve been caught before he even got to the door.

He shoves the backdoor open, bounds over the small porch, landing on his knees in the grass. 

Their backyard is tiny, in the summer they put out a few chairs, but any other season it’s empty except for the tiny shed in the corner. Murphy knows there’s a small gap between the fence and the shed that he can fit into, and he knows his dad will be expecting him to try and hop the fence. 

Looking at the big chainlink fence from here, he doesn’t think he can scale in, not in time anyways, he can hear the pounding footsteps of his father get closer to the yard, so in a split second, he ducks behind the fence pushing as far back and out of sight as he can.

The door bangs open, his dad’s steps are slow and calculated as he surveys the yard, not stopping at the strikes of thunder and lightning, that make Murphy wince. He presses himself even further into the shed, hoping he’ll just melt into the shadows somehow.

The steps get closer, and his dad approaches the fence now, he can just make out a sliver of his body, but if he can see his dad, that means if his dad turned his head just right, he’d be found too.

He tried not to move, to steady his breathing, his dad stared at the fence almost resentfully for another moment before grunting and turning back to the house. Murphy nearly sighs in relief.

Then a clap of thunder even louder than the others startles him, a low rumbling seems to be coming from everywhere. All around him, Murphy can hear something, and it’s coming towards him.

It hits him all at once, but he can feel it in every bone in his body. Like every cell has been turned around, he cries out, not necessarily in pain, but in shock and panic.

And then it’s gone. The rain lets up quickly, and he’s in his backyard. But he’s not alone.

The footsteps he hears are furious, they bound towards him and he shuffles back as his dad peers into the gap he’s hiding in.

Murphy’s cowering, holding his hands out to block his face, but nothing comes towards him, not his father’s fist, not even an angry word. 

He opens an eye tentatively to find his dad looking up and down the break between the shed and the fence wildly as if Murphy wasn’t even there. After a moment he stops, stares at the crevice just as angrily as he’d looked at the fence, and turns back to the house.

Murphy stands there a moment, waiting. He only dares to come out when his dad has been gone for nearly half an hour, and he’s sure it isn’t a trick, and he’s not waiting for him outside.

He walks towards the backdoor slowly, in through the kitchen to the bathroom, and he stares at the mirror above the sink, but no one looks back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you couldn't already tell, murphy's one of my favorites, hope you don't mind me inventing a little bit of a tragic angsty past for him
> 
> I got a D in stats if anyone wants to tutor or kill me


	7. Funny Meeting You Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm just gonna tell you now: this chapter is a doozy. This chapter makes up 22% of the whole fic, it's 11 pages on google docs, and it's over 3000 words. Go grab a snack, some chapstick, and water before you read this bad boy. Another warning- I didn't really edit this a whole lot. Again it's 11 pages, and I wrote it on Thursday (I post this fic on Fridays) so I really didn't feel like it. If you notice anything lmk!
> 
> Haley, please answer my calls, I just wanna know if you're ok- I'm really sorry

The rebellion isn’t based too far away from the city to Clarke’s surprise. When he catches a glimpse of her shocked face, Murphy just shrugs.

“It’s hard enough to be part of a top-secret rebellion,” he says, “We didn’t want to make the commute too bad on top of all that.”

Without another word of explanation he gets out of the car and starts walking through the parking lot, he’d pulled into. Clarke scrambles to follow him, her socks and shoes still wet with water from the sewer, and Wells’ blood still staining her sleeves.

He walks to the edge of the parking lot towards one of the massive abandoned buildings lining it, Clarke trails him cautiously, “What is this place?”

“Used to be a subway I think,” Murphy replies, opening one of the doors in the front that at first glance looked to be nailed shut, but seemed to only be held in place by a couple of screws, “No one comes by here anymore though.”

Clarke wants to ask if it’s safe to enter, but Murphy’s already halfway inside and the question dies in her throat, he’d just roll his eyes anyways, she doubted anything about this whole situation was safe.

The abandoned subway was cold and empty. Murphy trailed from small waiting rooms before descending down a big set of stairs. The whole station looked familiar, it was probably identical to the ones Clarke had taken in the city, but it was so strange to see the stations she’s ridden growing up left to the elements. 

Grass and plants grew in the cracks between floor and walls, she could hear the rustling of small animals all around her. It must’ve been abandoned for years by that point with all the overgrowth.

Finally, Murphy stopped walking through the station, stopping at a platform. Clarke inspected the large room while Murphy fiddled with a flip phone. 

It was identical to the ones she’d seen in her city, with the exception of vines up and down most walls. There was a subway car sitting on the rails that looked almost out of place in all the chaos, it was clean, mostly untouched minus a few scratches. She starts to walk towards it to investigate when Murphy grabbed her arm.

“Don’t touch anything, give me one second and we’ll be at base soon,” he says, then muttered to himself, “If I can get this damn thing to work.”

She looked at the flip phone in his hands, it was low on battery, and could find a signal, “I doubt you’ll be able to make a call with that. We’re a little far from the city, and we’re in a subway. Not exactly ideal circumstances.”

“Trust me, I have a friend who keeps me connected,” Murphy replies, again with no explanation

“What does that even-” Clarke starts, but is interrupted by the phone starting to ring,

“Hello?” Murphy answers it, holding a hand up to silence Clarke’s questions, “Yeah, we’re down here, getting in now, have Gaia bring us back?”

He hangs up after getting confirmation on the other end of the line, Clarke can barely hear the muffled voice, and before she can ask anything else Murphy snaps the phone shut and starts towards the abandoned car still sitting on the tracks.

“Where are we going?” Clarke asks, following him into the car

“I told you, we’re going to the rebellion base.”

“How exactly are we going to get there sitting in an abandoned subway car?” Clarke says,

“Give it a second, they weren’t expecting us like this?”

“Give what a second?” As Clarke asks again, suddenly the car shifts, she whips her head around, “What was that?”

Before she can get off the car, it starts moving, very quickly. Down the tracks, it runs through the underground system.

“How?” Clarke asks Murphy,

“I can turn invisible, you can shoot lightning out of your hands, and this is where you draw the line?” Murphy asks, “It’s simple telekinesis.”

“Nothing about telekineses is simple!”

“Don’t let Gaia hear you say that, it’ll go right to her head.”

It feels like only a minute or two before the car starts to slow before it slides to a gentle stop.

Clarke steps out immediately, without looking around, after she takes a moment to catch her breath she finally looks out at the new platform in front of her.

Again it’s incredibly familiar to Clarke. The layout of the building is identical to those like it, but instead of weeds, and plants spread throughout it, there’s furniture, rugs, tapestries all laid around the platform. Children are sitting at tables, adults are walking through the station chatting. The whole platform is laid out like a mini-hotel of sorts.

“Come on, let’s go see if Lexa’s back,” Murphy says, stepping out of the car a moment after her and leading her through the platform. He weaved between people and chairs, exchanged pleasantries with those he passed by, before leading her up another flight of stairs.

The upstairs of this platform was much different. It had been completely modified from the others, every wall was reinforced, windows were blacked out, there was no furniture or decorations, it reminded Clarke of jail.

In the back, tucked behind a big group of computers sat a kid about her own age, and if it weren’t for the glow of the screens she would’ve missed him in the darkened room.

“Jasper?” Murphy says when he spots him, “Are they back?”

Jasper looks up without pulling his eyes off the screen, “What? No of course not, they won’t be back till tonight earliest. You know that.”

Murphy huffs, “Did the refugee group get here safe?”

“Uh-huh,” Jasper replies noncommittally, “They were kinda spooked though, had some pretty crazy stories about their escape. Did you hear about the electrical outages? Apparently, a new super came across them when they were running, killed like twenty people in a few minutes, must be crazy powerful if they-”

“Jasper,” Murphy says shortly, and Jasper finally looks up, with his eyes. He finds Clarke immediately, his vision is used to looking at things in the dark. She’s still a little wet, covered in blood, and probably looks at least a little traumatized, “This is Clarke.”

“Hi,” Clarke says, stepping towards Jasper, holding out a hand. He stares at her a moment before taking her hand and shaking it, still staring at her a little like she might electrocute him if he looks away.

“You’re the one they found?” Jasper asks, and winces at her nod, “Sorry about… that.”

“It’s ok,” Clarke shrugs, trying not to replay his words over and over. Twenty people. Really. She’d done that? She hadn’t even meant to. “What do you do?”

“What do I do about what?”

She stares at him a second before Murphy cuts in, “She’s asking what your power is, buddy.”

“Oh. Oh!” Jasper says, then gestures towards the many computers in front of him, “This.”

“This?” Clarke blinks, “You do computers?”

“I do more than that, I’m pretty much plugged into every electronic device in the tristate area. I’m good with tech basically. Really good with tech that is. Not like some computer nerd, like I’m one with them. They’re part of me.”

“He’s the way we all stay connected,” Murphy explains, “That’s why I could get a signal at the subway entrance, he can reach us pretty much anywhere.”

“That’s sick.” Clarke comments, a little jealous. Jasper and Murphy’s powers seem so much more… useful than hers. Like they both have real-world applications. She’s about to ask Jasper another question about it when suddenly a gust of wind blows them all a little. Her hair flies into her face the few papers on Jasper’s desk fly into the air.

Before Clarke can ask what the hell just happened, some guy seems to appear beside Murphy, “Hey Murphy, you’ve been gone for ages!”

Murphy groans, and brushes his hair out of his face, “Not long enough.”

The stranger just laughs and punches Murphy in the shoulder like they’re friends, but Murphy stiffens with each second the man stands next to him.

She doesn’t even get a chance to ask for another explanation when he notices her, “You’re the newbie?”

She nods, and in a second he’s right next to her, another gust of air blows her hair back, “I’m Finn, my whole thing is being fast. If you didn’t notice.”

“I did actually notice,” Clarke laughs, 

“You’re like electric, right?”

“Uh, yeah I guess I am.” 

“That’s so cool!” Finn exclaims, “You’re not keeping her cooped up here till Lexa gets back right? It’ll be ages till then!”

“I think we should wait, Finn, Lexa will want to-”

“Lexa won’t want to do anything till she gets back, come on let me show you around!” He turns to Clarke, “You won’t have any fun hanging around this guy, trust me.”

She looks to Murphy, “We won’t go far, besides Jasper can contact Finn anywhere right? So when your friend gets back give me a call and we’ll come back.”

Murphy looks at her uncertainly a moment, “I mean I guess I can’t stop you, but be careful, don’t leave the station system.”

“Yes!” Finn exclaims, and he starts out the door, so Clarke goes to follow him,

“Clarke” Murphy calls after her, “Be careful with him… he’d kind of an asshole.”

“That’s funny coming from you Murphy.”

“Hey, I only pretend to be an asshole,” Murphy says, “Finn on the other hand, well he pretends to be a nice guy.”

Clarke rolls her eyes, and Finn pops his head back in the room, “What’s the hold-up?”

“Nothing.” Clarke replies eying Murphy, “After you.”

As they start to leave again, Murphy says, “Hey Finn, you know who else is coming back with Lexa’s team tonight?”

Finn pales instantly, “Uh, no I don’t- Come on Clarke our first stop is right this way.”

She follows after him and even though he’s not speeding like he probably could she struggles to keep up, his walking pace is comparable to her jog, but he keeps her entertained with a stream of commentary, about the places they pass by, and a few comments of people they walk past.

“Here’s the mess.” Finn gestures to a new platform they walked to through a connecting hallway, there’s no one in it, though it’s filled with tables and chairs, “The cafeteria is all vegetarian since we don’t have access to animal products like meat down here.”

“But you have access to plants?” Clarke asks,

“Oh yeah, Monty’s a pro gardener, it’s his superpower. Literally.” Finn explains, “He can make anything grow anywhere. He covered the entire entrance to the base with foliage to dissuade ‘urban explorers’, now it looks like this place has been shut down for twenty years, but it’s only been out of service since the wave.”

“Huh.” That’s all Clarke can manage to comment, she’d really thought the subway looked wrecked by nature when she’d been down there, “So you all have to live as vegetarians?”

“What? No, we can leave.” Finn says, “Except for the refugees I guess, but I doubt they mind. Plus if they ask, any topsiders would get them food from the city.”

“Refugees?”

“Runaway wavic’s is what they’re called up there, but they pretty much are refugees,” Finn says, “Any super that’s been caught by the government is on the run for the rest of their life, we take as many as we can in. Our task for is on a recon mission right now, doing just that.”

“Taskforce? Is that where Lexa is?”

“Oh yeah, she’s pretty much the de facto leader of this place,” Finn says, “She runs the whole station system and all our operations. She set up the rescue mission you crashed today.”

“Right,” Clarke says, thinking about that mission, she wonders if Wells just happened upon them the same way or if he’d met up with Lexa and organized his involvement. She wonders if he ever got to see the station system. She hopes he did.

Finn seemed to sense her discomfort, “Shit I’m sorry. I know the mission went wrong. I’m sorry to hear about your friend.”

“It’s fine,” Clarke bits her lip, “I mean-”

“It’s not fine, of course, it’s not Clarke.”

She looks up at him, and he’s stepped even closer to her while she was daydreaming, without her noticing, “I know-I know it’s not fine. I just-”

“Being here without him must be hard.”

She shrugs, “I think he would’ve liked it is all.”

“You don’t have to be miserable just because he’s gone,” Finn says, “He would’ve wanted you to continue to be happy Clarke.”

She furrows her brow, Finn hadn’t even met Wells. He hadn’t even died more than an hour ago. Clarke figured it was perfectly fair to still be grieving him at this point. She wasn’t wallowing in grief, she was-

Her train of thought was cut off by Finn leaning forward suddenly and pressing his lips against hers, she’s frozen in shock for a few moments before he jumps back, his hand pressed to his lips, “What the fuck was that?”

“Wha-what?” Clarke asks, 

“You shocked me!” Finn exclaims,

She hadn’t meant to, just like before she was so caught up in her own head she just lost control, and the electricity sparked out of her, “I didn’t mean to.”

“You could’ve killed me!” Finn says,

“I- what?” Clarke says, “I wasn’t trying to hurt you! You surprised me!”

“You killed twenty people the same way earlier this afternoon!” Finn cries, “Jesus! Do you have no control at all?”

“No!” Clarke says, “I don’t! I only started to use my powers today, so excuse me for not having complete and total control!”

Finn holds his hands up in surrender, before rubbing his hands against his mouth again, “Well excuse me for trying to make you feel better.”

“Make me feel better?”

“Yes!” Finn says, “About your friend.”

“Making out with me isn’t going to make me feel better,” Clarke says, “He died two hours ago.”

“Great,” Finn says, turning away from her and walking further away from the initial platform, “Have fun with your little pity party then.”

He’s gone before Clarke can snipe back. She wants to scream, Murphy was right, he was an asshole. Instead, she slams her foot into the ground in frustration instead, and small sparks fly off her heel.

That was a new and terrifying development. She looks back and forth between the platforms and decides she has a better shot at getting back to the HQ without Finn.

She begins the walk down the hallways and through the different platforms, this time without the admittedly helpful narration from Finn. Fewer people milled around this time, so she gets from room to room quickly.

She’s back in the familiar room before she knows it when Murphy materializes next to her, “Finn says you snuck off.”

“Fuck.” Clarke jumps, “Don’t do that!”

“Don’t sneak off.”

“I didn’t sneak off, Finn took off and I walked back.” Clarke says, and at his suspicious glance, “You’re gonna believe that asshole over me?”

“Fair enough,” Murphy shrugs, the starts walking back towards the boarded-up room, “Come on, you’ve gotta come to meet Lexa.”

“She’s back? I thought it was gonna be a while.” Clarke asks, following up the stairs, “Did she bring more refugees?”

“Refugees?” Murphy asks, “No, that’s not really her thing- she’s been investigating Silver Tounge.”

“Silver Tounge?” Clarke asks, 

“Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of-”

“Of course I’ve heard of Silver Tounge,” Clarke clarifies, “I mean- I figured they were part of your organization.”

“Nope.” Murphy replies, “We’ve been keeping tabs, but haven’t made any kind of contact yet. They don’t want to talk to us I guess. Drives Lexa up the wall.”

“Nothing drives me up the wall Murphy.” 

They hadn’t made it up the stairs yet, so neither had noticed the imposing figure standing at the top staring down at them, she was dressed similar to the soldiers from the sewers, except she had no weapons, and her hair was braided on either side.

“You know what I mean,” Murphy says, “You’ve been after them for ages, don’t say you aren’t a little bit annoyed by them.”

“I don’t get annoyed,” Lexa says, shrugging, she turns into the pseudo bunker, Clarke and Murphy follow, 

“That’s not true,” Murphy snorts, “Finn gonna be in this debrief right, and I bet Bellamy’s gonna be picking O up after?”

“Fine, but those are the exceptions.” Lexa smirks, and it’s like she’s looking right through Clarke, she finds herself blushing before she can stop herself, “But they are truly standouts.”

“Bellamy? O?” Clarke whispers to Murphy as they continue to the back of the bunker where Clarke can hear the buzz of chatter, Murphy waves her question away.

“You’ll see.”

And then they’ve made it to maybe the only comfortable looking room in the HQ, it’s got hand-crafted wooden hairs, and a big table a couple of kids about Clarke’s age sit around.

“Alright, who’s ready to debrief?”

Lexa stoped at the front of the room, her question got everyone’s attention, and they all shifted in their seats to look at her.

“Well, the mission was unsuccessful.” A girl sitting near the front says, wedged between Finn and Jasper, “We made no contact with our target, and the trail is still cold.”

“Thank you, Raven,” Lexa says, “Can someone tell me what we did manage to accomplish?”

The group shifts uncomfortably looking around at each other, and Lexa clears her throat, “We raided the biggest Super prison, and lived to tell the tale!”

Clarke looks at Lexa in surprise, they’d raided a prison? “I thought you were looking for Silver Tounge? Why were you at a prison?”

“I’m sorry who are you?” Raven asks,

Before Clarke can answer, Finn chimes in, “That’s Clarke, Murphy found her on his last refugee mission.”

“Found?” Murphy says, “She’s the one who found me.”

“You’re the electrical girl?” Raven asks, “That’s so cool! I’ve kinda got a similar thing, I could help you with training and-”

“That’s enough Raven, you can gossip later,” Lexa says, and Raven sits back in her chair deflated, “Does anyone have anything else to add?”

“No, but I kinda need to go soon.” A girl sitting opposite from Raven says, “Bell’s waiting and-”

“Blake can leave whenever he wants, no one’s keeping him.” Lexa says shortly, “If you ever want to make this team you’re gonna need to be able to dedicate all your time Octavia.”

Octavia nods silently, and Lexa starts discussing more of the mission. Clarke pretty much spaces out for the rest of the meeting, looking over the small group of teenagers sitting before her. They all seem a little depressed if Clarke’s being honest.

The debrief wraps up not long after that, Lexa claps her hands together, “Alright, you’re all dismissed, Octavia follow me I’ve got something for you.”

Octavia glances towards the door that the others file out of, but follows anyway, as Lexa leads Octavia to another room, she calls after Clarke, “I’ll catch up with you later,”

“Come on,” Murphy says, popping beside Clarke suddenly, “They’re gonna be a while.”

“What are they even doing?” Clarke asks as she follows Murphy through the maze of room inside the bunker, back to the outside platforms.

“Lexa likes to give Octavia post-mission work, she says she’s preparing her to join the team.” Murphy shrugs, “It’s mostly a lot of busy work though.”

“Why?” Clarke asks,

“O’s a year younger than the rest of us,” Murphy says, “I think it started as Lexa being protective, but now it’s kinda turned into something else.”

“Something else?”

“She has a brother, he’s not like us, he wasn’t affected by the wave.” Murphy says, “He’s pretty cool, but he stuck around with Octavia afterward, no one else has non-super family who still talks to them. Lexa hates him, and she’s sidelining O for keeping him around.”

“That’s kinda fucked,” Clarke says, “What can Octavia do, is she vulnerable in the field or something?”

“No,” Murphy snorts, “She’s literally invulnerable, that’s her power.”

“Really?” Clarke says, “Like she could be shot-”

“Oh she has been, we shoot her all the time, bounces right off.” Murphy says, “She can punch through a cement block.”

“Jesus.” Clarke says, “If Lexa’s so desperate to get Silver Tongue, why wouldn’t she want Octavia on her team, she sounds like she’d be a huge help.”

“I guess she hates Bellamy more,” Murphy says, “Come on let’s go to the back of the station, that’s where teams hang out after missions, everyone can meet you properly.”

She nods and follows him through the station yet again, every time she thinks she knows where she’s going, Murphy takes a sudden turn and she’s lost all over again.

The room they end up in is small, with only enough room for two couches and a coffee table, most of the kids from debriefing sit throughout the room.

Jasper’s in the corner, with a laptop on both legs, an Asian boy sits beside him reading a book that might weigh more than him. Raven is walking around the room, lighting various candles, and as Clarke walks in she’s finished lighting the last one, she turns back towards the couch and plops down next to Finn, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Clarke’s face gets hot immediately, she stands there stuck in place, she can barely hear Murphy introduce her again, “You guys all met Clarke right?”

“Oh hi!” Raven jumps up from the couch, “Sorry about Lexa, she can be kind of intense. That’s Jasper and Monty, I’m Raven, you’ve met Murphy, unfortunately, and over there is my boyfriend Finn.”

Finn waves at her weakly from his seat on the couch, and Jasper interrupts Raven’s rambling, “She’s already met me and Finn, he gave her the grand tour and everything.”

Finn nods uncomfortably, but Raven doesn’t seem to notice either of their unease, Clarke steps back suddenly, “I-I’ll be right back, I think I left something in the bunker.”

She turns on her heel and starts down the winding hallways before Murphy or Raven can follow her, and begins to hope she gets lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> planning a road trip is a lot harder than most people think huh, comment your wandavision hot takes below (don't spoil it for people who didn't stay up till 3am like dumbasses tho)


	8. It's Gonna Be A Long Long Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you guys already know I didn't edit this- actually I wrote this 5 minutes ago and then immediately posted it. get ready for blake sibling chaos
> 
> haley, where are you? I went by your house but your mom said you were out, please answer my texts

She does get lost. Very lost actually. Every hallway looks the same, and every time she comes across a room it’s empty.

She’s genuinely considering starting to yell for help when she runs into Octavia.

She literally runs into Octavia, she’d been looking the other way down a different hallway as she turned, and collided with the younger girl.

“Oh shit,” Clarke exclaims, she nearly fell back, “Jesus that hurt.”

“Sorry,” Octavia says, “I’m kind of… strong.”

“It’s ok- Murphy explained, you’re like invulnerable right?”

Octavia nods and looks around, “Where are they anyway? I thought Murphy was bringing you to the back room.”

“He did, I just needed some air,” Clarke says, says looking back down the hall, 

“Yeah, they can be kinda intense,” Octavia says, “Especially after a mission.”

“Oh no, they’re fine...” Clarke says, Octavia starts down the hall and seems to know where she’s going so Clarke follows, “I just- it’s that-”

“You don’t have to explain,” Octavia waves her mumbling away, “You’ve had a rough day, trust me I get that.”

“You lost someone?” Clarke asks, 

“Not like you did,” Octavia shrugs, “But yeah, it’s just me and Bell now.”

Clarke nods, “Lexa really seems to hate him.”

“She doesn’t hate him,” Octavia snips, “She’s just wary. Of humans. It’s not personal. If she really didn’t want him around he wouldn’t be.”

“Right, sorry.”

“Jeez, I didn’t mean to snap.” Octavia stops in the middle of the hall and turns to Clarke, “I was trying to make you feel better.”

“It’s ok, you don’t have to-”

“I want to.” Octavia says, “Come on, let’s ditch them.”

She turns down a winding hallway decidedly, a new sense of determination about her, “You must have questions, go ahead ask me anything.”

Clarke considers this a moment. Part of her wants to ask about Finn. And Raven. That would be awfully suspicious though. Besides, she’s more curious about Octavia’s role in this rebellion than anything else.

“If you’re not going on missions, what do you do?”

“Research mostly,” Octavia says, “Finding others, organizing missions for the team, looking into sightings.”

“So you’re in charge of tracking down Silver Tounge?”

“Oh no, Lexa insists on doing that herself,” Octavia laughs, “It’s like she’s obsessed. No one else touches that.”

“Huh.” Clarke says, somewhat to herself, “Why don’t you go on missions? I’d think someone like you would be a pretty big help.”

“I’m younger than them, only by a year, but they’re all a little overprotective.” Octavia says, “It’s the only thing Lexa and Bellamy agree on.”

“Do you think they’ll let you come soon?” Clarke says,

“I don’t know anymore,” Octavia replies, “It’s felt like it could happen any day now, but for years. Part of me thinks they’ll never let me.”

“You think I’ll but put on the team?”

“You’re very powerful,” Octavia says, “But you’ll need training. A wild card on the field is dangerous even if they’re on our side. It might be a while.”

Clarke nods, and as she starts to ask another question, Octavia breaks out into a grin, “We’re here!”

She runs to the end of the hallway, that Clarke had been so wrapped up in grilling Octavia, she hadn’t even noticed.

There’s a door, and Octavia rises on her toes to peek through the small glass window at the top, “His car is here!”

“Who’s the car?”

“Bellamy’s,” Octavia says like it’s obvious, “Come on, he’s been waiting for hours.”

Clarke, bewildered goes for the door handle but after a few tugs it won’t budge, “It’s locked.”

“Not really,” Octavia grins, grabbing it herself, “Let me.”

After one big pull, the door opens like there was never a lock at all, Octavia doesn’t even stop and notice Clarke’s shocked face before she runs out to the small backroad. 

“Bell?” She calls, “Bellamy?”

Clarke trails her slightly walking to the darkened car not far from the door, all the windows are smashed, and the driver’s seat door is ajar, Clarke looks to Octavia, “What happened here?”

“I-I don’t know.” Octavia says, her voice shaking, “I think someone took him. Someone took my brother.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this all in one sitting at 3 in the morning but I honestly think it's my best work. Idk if anyone actually wants _more_ of this, but if you do, please comment down below and let me know. My emails have been fucked recently so I don't get notifications from kudos, so I'll only really know if you comment. :)


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